


Caput Mortuum

by Auddieliz09



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, For reasons, Haunted Houses, Home Renovation, M/M, cursed liam dunbar, i just thought you'd like to know, that's not relevant to their relationship, theo is handy with tools
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21851833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Auddieliz09/pseuds/Auddieliz09
Summary: Liam had pretty much resigned himself to never leaving his home, but then HE moved in.OrThe one where Liam is a ghost (but not really) and Theo buys the house he haunts (but not really).
Relationships: Liam Dunbar/Theo Raeken
Comments: 38
Kudos: 119
Collections: 2019 Thiam Reverse Big Bang





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xCaraChimerax](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xCaraChimerax/gifts).



> Hello, lovelies! Welcome to my first Thiam Reverse Big Bang fic! This event has been a journey for me and even through the doubts and stress, I'm glad I participated in this event.
> 
> This fic was inspired by art by the amazing xcarachimerax. You should look her up on tumblr under moondrunkmonster56. Literally all of her work is amazing. Cara, this one's for you.
> 
> A special thanks to Sef and Tara for the beta reading and endless encouragement. Wouldn't have made it without you guys!
> 
> Annnd the wonderful art that prompted this fic can be found here: https://imjustafangirl-nobodylovesme.tumblr.com/post/189769440197/caput-mortuum

_ He should have listened when everyone told him she was a witch. But her eyes were so lovely and her skin was so soft. He couldn't have resisted if he'd tried.  _

_ All would have been well if he'd loved her the way he'd told her he did. If he'd kept his promises to stay with her forever. But a pretty boy came into town with a shy smile and pretty freckles across his nose and he thought his heart was lost once again. _

_ He met her in the forest beside his family’s graveyard to tell her he’d met another. Her wrath was swift and vicious. She proved to him that she was the witch everyone had warned him of.  _

_ Energy crackled around her form and a phantom wind blew back her hair. She raised her arms and her eyes turned black.  _

_ He was thrown back into the graveyard. Before his world went black, he heard these words: “YOU’LL NEVER STRAY AGAIN, LIAM DUNBAR. YOU WILL STAY ON THESE GROUNDS. UNSEEN. UNHEARD. UNTIL YOU FIND TRUE EVERLASTING LOVE THAT HAS BEEN DENIED ME.” _

_ Liam woke beside his grandfather’s headstone. He thought perhaps he’d fallen asleep and had a terrible dream. He made his way through the small plot of land where his kin were buried toward his family’s home.  _

_ He walked through the front door and realized dinner had started without him. He sat in his seat and no one batted an eye at him. Liam frowned. Usually, his mother would be cross with him for coming to dinner late. _

_ Before he could say anything, his little sister said, “Where is Liam?” _

_ “What do you mean silly, I’m right here,” Liam answered. Sara didn’t respond. _

_ His older brother, James, did. Not to Liam, though. To Sara. “He’s probably with that witch.” _

_ James’ twin, Jack, leaned toward Sara. “She’ll boil the skin off his bones if he ain’t careful.” _

_ “Hush,” Liam’s oldest sister, Lillian, chastised her brothers. “He was seen with that new fella, Caleb. I bet he just lost track of time with his new beau.” _

_ “Either way,” Liam’s mother glared at him. No, she glared through him. As if looking at an empty seat. “He’s going to bed hungry when he deigns to show up.” _

_ “Might tan his hide for good measure,” Liam’s father muttered. “He knows better.” _

_ “I’m right here!” Liam hollered around the table. “I’m right here!” _

_ Nobody heard him. Nobody saw him. Nobody felt him. _

_ He watched in horror as weeks passed and his parents gave up thinking he’d ever come home. He heard from his brothers and sisters the rumors around town. That he’d run away with the witch. The witch had kidnapped him and eaten him. The witch had caught him with Caleb and flayed him alive. All of the rumors surrounded her. _

_ He needed answers, but when he tried to cross over the property line, he found himself back at his grandfather’s grave. It probably wouldn’t have mattered if he could have left. Word had gotten to him that she’d left town. _

_ Months passed and his family stopped looking for him. They stopped hoping he’d come home. After a year, they’d put a headstone in the graveyard with his name on it. Sara had insisted that they not put dates on the stone in case he was still alive. _

LIAM EUGENE DUNBAR

Forever loved. Forever missed.

Gone, but not forgotten.

_ If Liam could have cried, he would have. If only his family’s love was the kind that could break the witch’s curse. _

_ He found out that many of the animals could see him. Or at least sense him. He felt less gone when the barn cat swatted at his dangling fingers, even if his paws always went right through them. _

_ Years passed. He watched his siblings grow and leave the house. He watched his parents grow old and die. He watched as they were buried in the graveyard beside his grandparents. Behind his own memorial stone. _

_ None of his brothers or sisters wanted to live in the house after their parents were gone, so James and Jack sold it.  _

_ He tried to communicate with the next family who moved in. Then the next. Then the next. He watched as fewer and fewer people came to visit the family graveyard until the last Dunbar to be buried, an uncle he’d never met, was laid to rest.  _

_ The last couple to live in the house had a baby who could see him. He’d been so excited that someone noticed him, he didn’t even care that she was only an infant. He sang lullabies that he remembered his mother singing for his little sister to the baby. He danced for her and made little puppet shows with his fingers.  _

_ The baby’s parents never saw him, but they were concerned that the girl was fascinated at nothing. They couldn’t hear his singing but they talked about how the air felt wrong when the baby stopped crying ‘by herself’. _

_ After only a year, the couple took their baby, and Liam’s hope with them. _

_ His days and nights were lonely. He had no need to eat or sleep. He spoke to the crows that nested in the old oak tree in the backyard. He spent endless hours circling the parameters of the property. He’d watch wild and stray animals wander through the yard, but was too afraid of spooking them to get their attention. _

_ The family with the baby girl must have told some locals about their daughter before they left, because news spread of the house being haunted and so the house sat empty for years and years. Sometimes squatters would stay for a winter and teenagers would break in to see ‘the ghost’.  _

_ Liam never minded the company, but he drew the line at vandalism. He’d learned some tricks over the endless years on his own. He didn’t care if the rumors of a haunting spread more every time he scared people away by slamming cupboards and stomping on the stairs. This was still his house and no one was going to make it worse than time itself had already done. _

_ Liam had pretty much resigned himself to never leaving his home, but then  _ he  _ moved in. _

🝎🝎


	2. i

“Right this way, Mr. Raeken.”

Theo follows the realtor up the stairs of the old house. She’s prattling on about how many rooms are upstairs, but Theo’s focusing on the integrity of the steps. More than a few of them squeak when he steps on them, but they seem pretty solid. Not bad.

The place as a whole seems pretty well preserved considering it hasn’t been inhabited for the better part of a decade. He’s pretty surprised at how little damage has been done inside the house. Usually, places like this have graffiti everywhere and most of the windows would be busted out. He’s seen a few here and there are cracked and the only spray paint he’s seen so far looks like the offender had been scared off halfway through the word they were trying to paint.

The kitchen hadn’t been updated since the 80’s at least. Longer for the electricity. He’s a little terrified to look at the plumbing, but that’s what he’s here for. He’s always wanted a fixer-upper. He’d grown up in brand new sterile houses that never looked actually lived in. He wants a home, not a showpiece. His parents don’t understand, but they’re supportive. His trust fund allows him to do whatever he pleases with his life. He’s decided to flip houses with his time and money.

He’d started his apprenticeship when he was seventeen and has helped turn twelve rundown, practically condemned houses into beautifully renovated homes since then. This is the first house he’s tackling on his own with his own crew. His mentor had sent him out, confident in her teachings and Theo’s abilities.

Regardless of his five years of hands-on experience and general contracting license and certificates, he still takes online courses to stay on top of the latest regulations and trends. Ever willing to learn more about what he’s chosen to do with his life.

His parents can be proud of that.

As he walks through the many small upstairs rooms, thinking on which walls to knock down and where he’d think about putting a new bathroom or two, he feels like he’s supposed to be here. Like this place is  _ his. _

“I’ll take it.” He interrupts the realtor’s spiel.

She blinks at him. “You will?”

“Yeah, I think I can really make something out of this place. The structure is solid and the lines are beautiful. It feels like this place has been taken care of even though it’s been empty for so long.”

“Yes. Well. Potential vandals tend to be… dissuaded from causing damage. And the one developer who’d wanted to tear the place down and exhume the graveyard to put up a strip mall on this side of town changed his mind shortly after making an offer.”

Theo’s eyebrows lifted. “There’s a graveyard?”

The woman hesitates for a moment and says, “Yes. I was going to show you the back of the property when we finished up here. There is a small family graveyard along the back edge that belonged to the original owners of the property.”

“Huh. Let’s go see it then.” 

As they tromp back down the stairs, Theo feels a chill go through him. He thinks about all of the old ghost tales and what they say about cold spots. He follows the realtor out the back door and through a small wooded area with a gnarled pathway into an overgrown field surrounded with a short iron fence with about twenty headstones dotting the ground. Already he thinks about what kind of landscaping he’d want to do to this area to improve the grounds and the overall aesthetic of the land.

“Oh, yeah. I can definitely work with this.” He turns to the older woman. “Tell me honestly, what are the chances of this place being haunted?”

“Oh, um,” Theo can practically see her disappointment at the question. No doubt thinking the answer would botch her sale. “Well, it depends on what you believe, I would say. But there have been rumors throughout the years.”

“I’ll be sure to try my best not to piss anyone off then, huh?” Theo chuckles.

“Yes. I suppose that would be best.”

“Alright. I guess we should head back to your office to do the paperwork?”

“Ah, yes. I’ll meet you there and draw it up for you.” She smiles at Theo and gestures for him to lead the way back to their vehicles.

🝎🝎

_ Liam stands beside his own stone marker and watches the pretty green-eyed man follow the realtor out of the graveyard. He knows, objectively, about Liam’s presence and doesn’t seem afraid. No, he’d seemed unperturbed by the thought of a ghost in the house, on the land. Not that Liam is a ghost. He didn’t die, after all. _

_ Maybe this handsome stranger would try to exorcise him. Liam snorts to himself. Not possible since he’s not haunting the place but it’s always fun to watch the Corporeals try. He can usually get a sense of what potential buyers of the property will want with the place. He’d known right away to get rid of the developer as soon as possible. _

_ This new man seems to want to improve the place. Liam isn’t going to deny anyone wanting to do that. He loves his home and he’d love to see it back to its fullest potential.  _

_ He can’t wait to see this Mr. Raeken again. _

🝎🝎

Theo pulls his RV trailer up beside his new-to-him house and throws his truck in park. He hops out of the Toyota and unhitches his temporary home from his truck before climbing back in and pulling the truck into the little driveway. 

More than anything he wants to explore the house and start knocking walls and measuring floors, but he makes himself set up his camper because he knows he’ll regret it later that night if he delays. Actually, he’s got a long list of things to do before he can explore his new property at length without an audience.

He pulls the generator out of the storage compartment under the front end of the RV and tugs the chord free, dragging it toward an exterior outlet. He looks at it dubiously and makes a mental note to get his electrician on the job as soon as possible. He’d had the electric company inspect the place before turning the power back on for him, but he’ll feel better about his chances of not burning the place down after the wiring is updated. He says a quick prayer to anyone who’s listening and plugs the chord in, thankful that nothing sparks as he does. 

Theo switches on the power and unlocks the entrance door, climbing the little metal steps into the trailer. He turns on lights and checks his fridge to make sure it’s working, as well as the stove and heater/ac unit. He turns everything off and makes his way out once more to hook up the water. Once that’s done and everything is checked, he pulls a small tub out of the storage cabinet beneath the bed. He opens it and wrinkles his nose at the stale scent of the stored bedding. Snapping the container shut, he settles it on his hip and exits the trailer, locking the door behind him.

Returning to his truck, Theo chucks the tub into the passenger seat and climbs inside. A faint shiver runs down his spine as he feels like he’s being watched. He peers around but doesn’t see anyone or anything. He shakes out his shoulders and starts the truck to head into town. 

🝎🝎

Beacon Hills is a beautiful town. Not so small that Theo will get bored out of his mind living there, but not so big that he’ll feel claustrophobic walking down the sidewalk. His first stop is to the local hardware store. He figures he’ll need to introduce himself to the owner, seeing as how he’ll be giving them a lot of business in the near future.

He pulls up in front of Hewitt Hardware & Lumber and grabs his papers with a preliminary order for smaller things Theo already knows he wants and needs. He’s still got a lot of paperwork to fill out before he can even think about demo, but it never hurts to get a jump on supplies.

He glances around the building, noting the expansions built onto the original building. He should be able to get everything he needs from the local businesses and he really hopes that’s the case. As he walks through the door and takes in the size of the place, he thinks that Hewitt’s will be able to cater to most of his needs and if not, hopefully, they’ll be willing to order anything they don’t have.

Theo hangs a left when he spots a man about his own age talking on the phone behind the front counter. He nods at Theo in acknowledgment and motions that he’ll be with him as soon as he wraps up his phone call.

“Yes, sir, it looks like we do have those size screws.” The man--his name tag says Mason--frowns as he taps on the keyboard of the computer in front of him. “Well, now, we have about four different sizes, do you know what you’ll need?... Well then, you might need to come down and take a look at them. If you could bring the old one in, we should be able to find a replacement for you. … Uh, huh. … Yep, no problem. We will see you later, then. Thank you.” Mason hangs up the phone and takes a deep breath before turning to Theo. “Sorry for the wait. What can I do for you?”

“It’s no problem,” Theo assures him. “Not too much you can do for me today, I don’t think. But I’ll probably be coming here an awful lot in the near future so I thought I’d get familiar with the place. I do have a list of items I’d like to place on order.”

“Well, then, let’s have a look at it. Gotta big project?”

Theo hands over the order and answers as Mason looks over his list. “Yep. Just bought my first house and it needs a lot of work.”

Mason peers up at him. “You’re the one who bought the old Dunbar place on Lanton?”

“That what the locals call it?” Theo grins. “I did buy a large, rundown house on Lanton Road if that’s what you’re talking about.”

“Sure is.” Mason starts poking around on the computer, never missing a beat as he talks. “My grandpa was best friends with the boy who disappeared. Well, he was, like, twenty or something, but yeah, Pops told me that Liam Dunbar left him at Hale’s to go break up with his girl and was never heard from again. Now, a lot of people think they up an ran away together because she left town, too. But half the town was convinced she was a witch and she killed him for parts when he broke up with her and left town before they could burn her.” He shrugs. “That’s what Pops still believes to this day.”

“Okay, wow. That’s…” Theo doesn’t really have the words. He wasn’t expecting local folklore when he came into the hardware store. “I asked the realtor if the house was haunted and she told me there were rumors. Maybe it’s this Dunbar kid.”

“Maybe.” Mason continues to type Theo’s order into the computer program. “I went through there a couple of times but nothing ever happened to me. But there was this kid in my class named Gabe, he and his little boyfriend went there once and I guess Gabe was going to tag the walls. Nolan told me he only got halfway through the first word before it got super cold and the cupboards started banging and lights started flashing. They booked it out and never went back.”

Theo thinks about the aborted spray paint job he’d seen on the wall. Well, if it is a ghost, he’s thankful it wants the house preserved as much as possible. “I saw the paint, it was definitely abandoned mid-word.”

“Huh. I mean, Nolan is, uh… skittish at the best of times, but Gabe never struck me as the type to get scared at a few flashing lights.” Mason rolls his eyes. “Unless they were red and blue. I kinda figured they just got busted and didn’t want anyone to know.”

“Definitely a more plausible scenario.” Theo nods.

Mason chuckles and clicks on a few things. “Alrighty, I need your name and phone number and we can get this order for you. Most of it will be available tomorrow but it’ll probably take a week to get that wood.”

“That’s no problem. I’ve got a shit-ton of paperwork to fill out before I can do more than look at the place.” Theo sighs and rattles off his information.

“I don’t envy you that.” Mason chuckles as the printer spits out a paper. “Here is your order receipt. Anything else we can do for you?”

“Just tell me if you guys will be willing to order any supplies I’ll be needing if you don’t already have them.”

“Oh, yeah. No problem. Just ask for me or my dad, Marshall. We’re the ones in charge of special orders. Mason Hewitt, by the way.” He offers his hand over the counter.

Theo grins at him and shakes his hand. “Theo Raeken. Pleased to meet you. You’ll probably be sick of me before this house is done.”

“We’ll see.” Mason laughs. “Hey, let me know if any weird things happen, will ya? I’m curious to see what might or might not happen if you’re planning on knocking down some walls.”

“I also plan to put more walls back up, so,” Theo shrugs. “Hopefully any ghosties will understand that I’m trying to make the place better.”

“Good luck, Theo. See you around.”

“Thanks!” Theo waves at him with his papers turns to leave the store. His light mood sours a little as he remembers the next item on his to-do list. Well, he can postpone it for a few minutes.

“Hey, Mason? Where is the nearest laundromat?”

“Hmm? Oh, uh, hang a left at the light and it’s like the fourth of fifth building on the left. The Washboard.”

“Thank you, again.”

In the interest of procrastination, he stops by the laundromat and tosses his bedding in a free washer, then heads toward the city’s municipal building. 

It takes several hours to find original blueprints of the house with and as many records of previous renovations as possible. As well as all the many, many necessary permits he’ll need to work on the house.

When he’s got enough papers to rebuild the tree they came from, he finally makes his way back to the house after picking up dinner and his laundry. He settles at his tiny table and spreads out his copy of the blueprints then the files for known upgrades. As he munches on his giant burrito, he notes all changes on the blueprints.

It was built in 1892. Pretty advanced with indoor plumbing to the kitchen and bathing room. In 1925, electricity was introduced to the house. Septic system and toilet added in 1944. All updated periodically throughout the next 40 years until the property value went down the drain. 

As he stares at the history in front of him, Theo gets a general feeling that he’s not alone. He looks up and peers around but doesn’t see anything. Which makes sense because he’d have heard anyone coming into the trailer.  _ And if ghosts are real, they’d have to stay in the house.  _ Theo snorts quietly to himself at the thought and decides to call it a day. 

He packs up his papers and tosses his food wrappers in the trash, ignoring the watched feeling. It’s probably just nerves from being in a new place. He enters the minuscule space that constitutes his bedroom and strips off his shirt. He’s unbuttoning his jeans when the feeling dissipates.  _ See? No big deal. _

🝎🝎

_ Liam sits across from Theo as the other man lays out the history of his house. He can remember all of the upgrades throughout the years. He can’t wait to see what Theo will do to it next. _

_ When Theo sits back and rubs his hand over the back of his neck, peering around his little portable house, Liam watches him closely. Does he sense Liam’s presence?  _

_ Liam waves his hand frantically in front of Theo’s face but Theo doesn’t notice. “Hey! Hey, Theo!” _

_ He’s disappointed when Theo shakes his head and chuckles softly before gathering up his papers and throwing away his trash. Liam watches as he goes to the little room in the back with a bed and pulls his shirt over his head. When he reaches down to undo his pants, Liam whirls around and walks through the wall and out of the trailer. He tells himself it’s because Theo deserves his privacy and that he’s never spied on any of the house’s previous owners and he’s not going to start now. But really, after seeing his newest housemate shirtless, he’s pretty sure he’ll die for real if he saw him wearing anything less. _

_ He waits until the moon is directly overhead before returning to the trailer. Under the hum of the appliances, Liam can hear soft snores coming from Theo’s bedroom. He looks over the tiny living space that Liam assumes Theo is going to occupy until he’s done doing whatever he’s going to do with the house. _

_ Did he actually sense that Liam is here? Is he sensitive to the paranormal? Does Liam consider himself paranormal? Well, yeah, sure. He’s definitely not normal. And he’s lonely and he’s desperate for someone to know that he’s here and he’s real. How can he get Theo to acknowledge him? _

_ His gaze lands on Theo’s papers that he’d carefully set in folders and stacked on the table. _

🝎🝎


	3. ii

Theo rolls out of bed the next morning and stumbles into the tiny closet called a bathroom. After he does his business and washes his face and brushes his teeth over the minuscule sink, he stumbles into the main space. He turns toward the kitchenette and pulls his single cup Keurig brewer out from under the sink, plugging it in and digging out a coffee pod from one of the drawers and a travel mug from the cabinet above the sink.

Once he’s got a cup of coffee brewing, he pokes around the other cabinet to see if he has anything quick to make for breakfast. Deciding ramen will do, for now, he pulls a package from the cabinet. Since he prefers stovetop prepared ramen over microwave, he turns to grab a pot from under one of the benches at the table. He freezes mid-yawn when he sees all of his paperwork laid out. 

_ What the hell?  _ He could have sworn he’d put all of that away the night before. He’s usually meticulous with his work and he can’t see why he’d have left it out. Maybe he’d just been really tired. He shakes his head. He’s going to have to start taking better care of himself before his team gets here. Tracy will have his head if he screws something up because he’s too tired to function properly.

He pulls out the pot and gets his breakfast started. While he’s waiting for the water to boil, he sits in front of the blueprints and looks over the progress he’d made the night before. They’re… finished? He flips through his papers and double checks the notes on the blueprints. He’s pretty sure he’d had only about a third of the work done.

He looks at where he’s pretty sure he’d left off. The next notation was done in the same pen, but the handwriting is not his own. There are even a few notations about changes made to the house that were not on any of the other documents.

The hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Had someone broke into his trailer while he was sleeping? To do his work? That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. And yet… 

He remembers feeling watched. Had someone been watching him through the windows? Or..? 

Theo huffs a breath at himself for his ridiculous thoughts. Even if ghosts were real, which he’s not above believing, it’d have to stay in the house or the graveyard, right? And he doubts any ghost would be inclined to do his job for him.

He probably just overdid it the night before. It would explain why his handwriting had gone wonky and he’d left everything out on the table. He’ll have to double-check the odd additional notes to see what the hell he was talking about and erase accordingly if needed.

When he’s finished with his breakfast and his dishes are drying in the little rack over the sink, he thanks his past self for the finished work, grabs his papers and heads toward his truck to grab his toolbelt. Armed with the necessary measuring tools and his utility clipboard, he goes inside the house.

The first thing he does is look over all the places he’d noted without remembering and every spot checked out. He idly wonders if he’d subconsciously noticed these things during his previous walkthroughs of the house. 

He’s knocking on an interior wall to find the support beams when he feels, once more, like he's being watched. He straightens and looks around the room, seeing no one. He takes a moment to glare at the dirty window. There was no shadow behind the dirt and yet the watched feeling persists. 

“Jesus, Raeken,” he mutters to himself. “Jumping at shadows now?” 

He leans over to knock on the wall once more when two sharp knocks sound before his own knuckles touch the wall. He pulls away from the wall, eyes wide, heart pounding.

“Holy. Shit.” He looks around frantically. “Shit. Okay, okay. If there really is a sentient being in here that just knocked, please do it again so I know I’m not completely crazy.”

He pauses to listen and jumps out of his skin when pounding sounds from his left. Followed by: “Theo Raeken. Let us in! We wanna seeee!”

Theo’s sucks in a deep breath and puffs it out, rubbing the heel of his hand over his heart. “Fuck.”

He walks to the front door and opens it to see Brett and Josh standing on the porch. Brett’s grinning like he knows he just startled ten years off Theo’s life.

“So this is the new place, huh? Looks pretty good.” Brett slaps the door frame.

“Structure is pretty freaking great all things considered. Josh is going to have his hands full with the electric, though.” He nods toward his electrician. “The hell you guys doing here? Nobody’s supposed to be here until next week. You really couldn’t wait three more days?”

“We got bored looking at the photos you sent and wanted to see it for ourselves, so.” Josh shrugs. “Are you gonna let us in now?”

Theo rolls his eyes at his friends and steps away from the door to let them pass. Before he takes them on a tour of the house and giving them a rundown of what he’s done so far, he glances one last time at the wall. He could have sworn the first two knocks came from the wall and not the door. 

🝎🝎

“So, what all are you planning to do with the place?” Brett asks.

The three men are settled in a back table at a local pub in town. Theo had anticipated the question and had brought a copy of the blueprints with him. He spreads them out on the table and points at the kitchen. 

“I’m gutting the entire kitchen. Those cabinets are awful. All of the floors are getting upgraded. I’m hoping that some of the carpet covers hardwood flooring that can be restored, but we’ll have to see when we pull it up.” He points at the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. “I want to knock this wall down entirely and open this area up so that it’s seen from the living room. I’m not looking for a completely open floor plan, but I’d like it all to be less cramped and closed up. 

He flips to the page with the second story of the house. “This is where the biggest changes are going to be made. Right now, there are five bedrooms. I’d like to knock that down to three and -sorry in advance to Corey- add two bathrooms. One in the master and one between the other two rooms.”

“Ugh.” Josh wrinkles his nose. “Corey is going to hate you.”

“I know. I already plan to give him a big fat bonus at the end of the year to make up for it.”

“Well, what about us?” Brett demands. 

“You get to knock out at least part of almost every interior wall. That should be more than enough to satisfy a brute like you.” Theo smirks. They know fully well that they’ll be getting a bonus as well. Theo takes care of his people.

“Plus, with all of the rewiring I’ve got to do and the additional plumbing we’re looking at upstairs, you’ll get to bang up the exterior walls, too.” Josh smiles at his boyfriend.

Brett’s grin is a little maniacal. “This is going to be awesome.”

Josh shakes his head. “Third floor?”

“Aside from the floors and wiring, I think I’ll leave it alone.” He pulls up the third-floor blueprints. “It’s basically one giant room. I love this little porthole window and these bay windows bring in enough natural light that I don’t want to cut any holes in the roof. Definitely going to reinforce insulation though. Anyone who wants to stay up there would be miserable during just about every season at the moment, I imagine.”

Josh tips his mostly empty beer glass at him in agreement. “What are you doing outside?” he asks Theo.

“Definitely needs a new roof. I’ll keep Malia happy and let her powerwash the old paint off.” The other two chuckle. “ Replacing all of the windows. I’m talking to the glass guys tomorrow, seeing about custom windows for that master bedroom. I love them and want to be able to go out them onto the balcony easier. I also love that damn balcony and the porch. I haven’t quite decided what I wanted to do with the yards, but Tracy will have a ball with the cemetery, I think.”

“I’m sorry. Did you say cemetery?” Brett blinks at him.

“Hmm?” Theo looks up from the third-floor blueprints. “Oh, yeah. There is an old family cemetery behind the house through a short trip in the woods. The final resting place of quite a few Dunbars.”

“Okay, so that’s not creepy at all.”

“I mean, it’s a little overgrown and the headstones probably need some restoration and the path needs some maintenance, but overall it looks alright.” Theo shrugs. 

“That’s not what I meant.”

“What? The occupants are dead. If any of their souls are still with us, they should be happy I’m fixing the whole place up.”

“Whatever, dude.” Brett shakes his head. “It’s your creepy ass cemetery now.”

🝎🝎

Theo sends Brett and Josh back to the city with a promise to see them the next week with the rest of the crew and they’ll get started on the house. He can tell they’re as excited as he is to work on the project together.

He heads back to the house to see about finishing some of what he’d started that morning. He finishes up with the wall he’d been interrupted while working on by his friends’ arrival. 

As he starts to walk away to the next room, two sharp knocks sound from behind him. Theo freezes. He turns to look back at the wall. The ever-reoccurring watched feeling intensifies.

He shakes his head and walks to the door. When he opens it, no one is there.

Two more knocks behind him.

Theo slowly closes the door and goes back to the room and stares at the wall. “I’m not going crazy am I?”

Two knocks.

A nervous laugh bursts from Theo’s chest. “What? One knock for ‘yes’, two knocks for ‘no’?”

One knock.

“Oh, shit. Jesus.” Theo drags his hands through his hair. “Okay. Okay. Um. Do you know what I’m doing here?”

One knock.

“Cool, cool. Are you okay with what I’m doing here?”

One knock.

“Good. That’s good. I’d hate to piss you off and have you messing up the operation. That’s something you’d do if you weren’t on board with the idea, right?”

One knock.

Theo can’t really believe what is happening right now. He’s talking to an actual fucking ghost. Ghosts are really real. He’d never been … closed to the idea of ghosts. But he also never thought he’d encounter one, either. 

“Um. Are you confined to this room?”

Two knocks.

“Okay, cool. Do you mind talking while I work?”

Two knocks.

“Alright. I guess follow me, then.” Theo walks through the doorway and starts explaining what he wants to do to the house to the entity. I want to get rid of this wall entirely so the kitchen and dining area are open to each other. That will give more room for counter and cabinet space in the kitchen, which I assure you, is a good thing.”

One knock.

Theo smiles a little. “This wall is going to stay, but I want to take the door out and turn this into an elongated archway, opening it up to the living space, but also keeping it its own separate area. Not going to lie to you, the whole open floor plan thing never really appealed to me. Did you live here when the house was first built?”

Two knocks.

“Not that old then, eh?”

One knock.

“Is your body in the cemetery?”

Two knocks.

“Oh, okay. Um. That was probably insensitive of me to ask anyway. Sorry.”

One knock, then two.

“Yes and no? I don’t know what you’re trying to say. It was insensitive to ask but I shouldn’t be sorry?” Theo’s face screws up.

One knock, then two.

Theo snorts. “I don’t think we’re going to be able to communicate that one thoroughly enough. Why don’t we just move on for now?”

One knock.

Theo walks through the rest of the house, talking to the ghost  _ -ghost!-  _ about what he’s planning to do to the house while it knocks every once in a while to answer his questions about its opinions. As he goes, he takes his measurements and notes. 

“Alright. That’s about all I’ve got so far. It’s going to get pretty messy, but it’ll be so much better off when we’re done gutting the place and putting it back together. You trust me?”

The one solid knock sounds right next to his head. Theo grins and turns toward the sound, then takes a step back in surprise. “Okay, wow. I- you’re standing directly in front of me?”

One knock.

“I’m either hallucinating super hard, or I see you. Kind of. More like a vague outline of a person. A dark patch, if you will. Pretty cool.” 

Three knocks.

“I’m going to assume that’s a good thing.”

Three knocks.

“Um. Are you excited?” Theo asks hopefully.

One knock, followed by three more.

Theo laughs. “Good. I think I’m going to call it a night. I’ll talk to you tomorrow?”

One knock, then three.

Theo laughs again, but it’s interrupted by a yawn. “Yeah, gonna go to bed.” He starts walking to the front door. I’ll have to go into town tomorrow for contracting stuff, but I should be back around by mid-afternoon.”

He pauses at the door. “Are you confined to the house?”

Two knocks.

“The property?”

One knock.

A crazy thought makes him turn to look at the shadow of a person beside him. “Can you go into my trailer?”

A short hesitation, then one knock.

“So you were watching me last night. I felt like I was being watched.”

Another hesitant single knock.

“Not gonna lie, that’s kinda creepy.”

One soft knock.

“You didn’t watch me sleep did you?” Theo wrinkles his nose.

Two quick solid knocks.

“Thanks for that.” Theo nods, believing the ghost. “Wait. Wait! Did you finish my paperwork!?”

One knock.

“Okay, wow. Um.. thank you, I think. That definitely explains the stuff I didn’t know about from the reports.” Theo rubs the back of his neck. “I guess, let’s turn in. Please continue to not watch me sleep. Or undress.”

One solid knock.

Theo snorts and heads toward his trailer.

🝎🝎

_ Liam slowly trails behind Theo.  _

_ Theo Raeken. _

_ Theo, who believes he’s there. Theo who talks to him. Theo who  _ sees  _ him! _

_ Theo can see him. He was beginning to believe that he’d never be seen again. _

_ He walks Theo to the door of his trailer, watching him climb the rickety-looking metal steps. Theo closes the door behind him and Liam starts to turn. The door reopens and Theo looks around, squinting until he sees Liam, or whatever Theo sees.  _

“It didn’t feel like you followed me. Are you going to come in?”

_ “Not yet.” Liam answers. _

_ Theo doesn’t twitch. Liam sighs and focuses his energy into sounding two knocks against the wall of the trailer, followed by one more. _

“Um. You’re not coming in now but you will later?”

_ Liam knocks once more. _

“Cool, I guess. See you tomorrow.”  _ Theo closes the door. _

_ And he will. Because Theo can see him. If Liam had a heartbeat, he’s sure it would be pounding in his chest.  _

_ As it is, he just wanders toward the cemetery, stopping in front of his stone.  _

Gone, but not forgotten.

_ Liam had never been gone, but he’d felt forgotten for so, so long. And now someone can see him. Someone who can talk to him. Maybe even help him. _

_ “YOU’LL NEVER STRAY AGAIN, LIAM DUNBAR. YOU WILL STAY ON THESE GROUNDS. UNSEEN. UNHEARD. UNTIL YOU FIND TRUE EVERLASTING LOVE THAT HAS BEEN DENIED ME.” _

_ Could Theo be the one who breaks the curse? Someone who could love Liam and that Liam could love so much in return that the witch’s curse would fall away and he could come back? Be a real person? Leave the property? _

_ He loves his home. It’s all he has left. But what if, after so long, he could finally have more? _

🝎🝎


	4. iii

Theo wakes, utilizes the bathroom, and wanders into the main room. He makes some coffee, then squints around the small space. He spots the shadow of his ghost sitting at the table.

“Um, good morning. Do you sleep?”

Two knocks.

“That sounds like the nights could get boring.”

One knock.

Theo chuckles. “That sucks. At least now I can entertain you.”

One knock.

“I can imagine how bad the boredom was while you were by yourself.”

A short pause, then two soft knocks.

“Yeah, you’re right. I can’t really imagine. The longer you’ve been, you know,” Theo gestures to the shade, “the worse it had to have been. Sorry for bringing it up.”

One knock. Theo takes it for acceptance.

He turns to look in his cabinets and poke his head in the fridge. “Ugh. I need to go grocery shopping. I guess you’ll have to entertain yourself for a few more hours. I’ve got several errands to run in town. Might as well grab some breakfast while I’m at it.”

One knock.

“Glad you agree.” Theo jabs his thumb over his shoulder. “Um, I’m gonna go get dressed, I guess.”

He returns to his room and dresses quickly. When he steps back out, he realizes his visitor is gone. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later then.” Theo chuckles to himself. He drains the rest of his coffee, rinses out the cup, and heads out the door.

Once he reaches town, he rolls through the first drive-through he sees and gets a breakfast sandwich and an orange juice. He eats it one-handed as he drives to the most highly recommended electrician in the town. He’s got Josh, of course, but this is a large project and contracting a few extra hands will make the work a lot easier for everyone on his team. He’ll be going to a local plumber when he’s finished with the electrician.

Theo polishes off his breakfast and goes into the electrician. A pleasant looking middle-aged woman sitting at a battered desk greets him when he walks through the door. “Hello,” Theo smiles at her, “I have an appointment with Scott McCall?”

“Ah, yes. You’re the young man who bought the old Dunbar place. He’s expecting you. Right this way, dear.”

Theo follows her down a short hallway to a door at the end. “Hey, Scotty, your appointment is here.”

“Thanks, Ellen.” Theo hears a man say from inside the office.

He walks through the door at Ellen’s prompting and shakes the hand of the man with a kind smile, crooked jaw, and many tattoos. “Thanks for seeing me.” Theo shakes his proffered hand and sits when he’s invited to.

“Well, I’ll be honest, Mr. Raeken, not many people make appointments to see me in my office, you know? Usually, it’s just on-call work.”

“Please, Theo is fine. I just figured I’d be more likely to get you in person if I made an appointment.”

“You can call me Scott. And you’re probably right about that.” He laughs. “So, what can I do for you, Theo?”

“Well, my operation is pretty small, but my project is very large. I wanted to come to you about some contracts with you and some of your guys to help with the house. I wouldn’t want to be getting in the way of your normal business, but anytime you have spare time to work with my guy would be helpful.” 

Scott grins affably. “I think we can work something out.”

They spend the next hour or so going over details and drawing up copies of contracts for everyone who might help Theo and Josh. 

Theo goes through the same process with the plumber, an eccentric man named Finstock who insisted on being called “Coach” and calling Theo “New Dunbar”. Whatever. He’d agreed to help Corey with the new plumbing. He’d been alarmingly excited about adding two new bathrooms on the second floor. He wishes Corey the best of luck with that one.

Theo rushes through his grocery shopping, ready to get home. He feels compelled to spend as much time there as possible and now that he’s got his invisible companion, he’s even more excited about being there. 

As he’s setting his bags into his truck, Theo looks up and sees the strip mall adjacent to the grocery store. There’s an eye doctor, a Chinese restaurant, a cell phone store, and… a place called Kitsune Krafts. The window has crystals and handmade jewelry on display, along with a fanned-out deck of Tarot cards.

Theo hadn’t really believed in psychics or witches or anything like that any more than he’d believed in ghosts, but now? Well. He guesses his proverbial third eye has been opened. He locks his truck and wanders toward the shop.

Inside, he can smell incense but it’s subtle, which is surprising. At the ring of the bell above the door a pretty Asian girl pokes her head out from behind a shelf. “Hi! Let me finish straightening this mess someone left and I’ll be right over. Go ahead and look around.”

“Thanks,” Theo smiles at her and starts to meander past the display cases. “Do you make these?” he asks. He pauses to admire some custom painted notebooks with Japanese lettering and classic style.”

“My mom and I do. I’ve been helping her make things since I was, like, seven. It all used to be exclusively Japanese artworks, but we’ve expanded to other things.” The girl walks out from behind the shelf and holds out her hand. “I’m Kira, by the way.”

“Theo,” he shakes her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Theo. What are you looking for today, or are you just here to browse?”

“Well… I’m honestly not one hundred percent sure what I’m looking for.” He rubs the back of his neck. “I recently bought a house and one of its previous occupants is still hanging around. He -she?- they’re pretty chill, but all we’ve got going for us is a knocking system that’s basically me talking to thin air and them knocking on a wall to answer yes or no questions. I’d like to be able to communicate easier than that.”

“Okay, wow. I’ve never- a real ghost? That’s what you’re talking about, right?” Theo nods. “Holy cow. Okay, so, I am in no way equipped to help you with that but my mom might be so let me go get her for you, okay?”

“Ah, yeah. Sure.” Theo shrugs. It’s not like he knows what he’s doing either.

The girl hustles away and Theo wanders over to the window display. There’s a sign next to the Tarot cards that read that they are for display only and to enquire about true cards inside. Whatever that is supposed to mean. The ones he’s looking at look fine to him.

The beaded curtain that Kira had disappeared behind rattles again, depositing Kira and a woman who looks like an older version of her. “This is the guy with the ghost. Theo.”

“Hello.” Theo waves.

“I am Noshiko. Kira tells me you are already in contact with the spirit?”

“Ah, yeah. I was just hoping to make contact a little easier so they could answer more complex questions. Also, I figured if they wanted to, I dunno, move on or whatever, then we could talk about it.” 

Noshiko squints her eyes at him then holds out her hand. “Let me see your hand.”

“Um, okay, sure.” Theo rests his hand in hers.

She turns up his palm and brushes her thumb over the lines. “I will let you borrow my personal Ouija board. You will bring it back to me tomorrow.”

“Ah, yes, sure. Yes, ma’am. You don’t think I’ll need it longer?”

“No.”

“Alright. Okay. Thank you.”

Noshiko nods and disappears behind the curtain as quickly as she came. Theo turns to Kira who is staring at him wide-eyed.

“She’s really just going to… let you borrow her own Ouija board? I- That’s never happened before.” 

“Well, I promise I’ll bring it back tomorrow like she said.”

“Probably for the best,” Kira smiles faintly at him. “She can be terrifying when crossed.”

“Of that, I have no doubt.” Theo chuckles nervously.

Noshiko walks out with a box in her hands. “Go where you feel the spirit’s presence the strongest, then open the box. Do not remove the velvet. When you are finished, do not forget to recover the board with the velvet before closing the box.”

“Yes, ma’am. Thank you.” Theo takes the box. “I will bring it back tomorrow.”

“I know.” Noshiko leaves once more.

“Right. Okay.” Theo says to Kira, cradling the box to his chest. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”

“Yep. Have fun with your ghost friend!” Kira says cheerfully, waving at him before disappearing behind the same shelf she’d been behind when he’d walked in.

“Thanks.” Theo shakes his head and walks back to his truck.

🝎🝎

Theo is putting away the last of his groceries when he hears three knocks beside him. He turns and smiles at the shadow beside him. Maybe it’s the lighting, but he swears he can see the form of his “ghost friend” better than he had that morning. It looks less like a shapeless shadow and more like the outline of a person.

“Hi! So, I got us a thing.”

There are no knocks. 

“Right. But that right there is exactly why. The scary lady said to do this where I feel your presence the strongest, but honestly, it’s the same everywhere so we might as well do it here.”

He moves to sit at the table where the box with the Ouija board is sitting. He gestures to the bench across from him and watches as the shade drifts through the table and sits. Sort of.

“Cool. Okay. It’s kinda dumb, but I figured it would work.” Theo lifts the lid on the box and pulls back the black velvet before pulling the board out with the planchette on top. “This way we can do a little more than just me asking yes or no questions.”

Before Theo can say anything else, a shadow arm hovers over the table and two knocks sound out.

“No? What do you mean, no? Don’t tell me it’s because you can’t move the thingy,” Theo points at the planchette. “You seemed to use my pen just fine when editing my blueprints.”

One knock.

“Yes. So? Why won’t you- Oh. Oh, god. I’m a dumbass. We could’ve been using a pen this whole time, huh?”

One knock.

Theo sighs and nods, putting the board back in its box, draping the velvet back over it instructed before putting the lid back on. He reaches for his clipboard and pulls out a pen and a notebook, sliding them over to the ghost. “Have at it then,” Theo tells them, his ears still burning.

The shade hovers it’s ‘hand’ over the pen and Theo watches in fascination as the pen raises and starts to write on the paper.

DON’T FEEL BAD. I FORGOT, TOO.

“Okay, but how could you forget something like that?”

WAS EXCITED

“Because I was talking to you?”

One knock.

“I guess knocking takes less effort than writing.”

One knock.

“Cool. So. Uh,” Theo tries to think of what he wants to know first. “what is your name?”

LIAM DUNBAR

Theo huffs out an incredulous breath. “Wow. I heard about you. The guy at the hardware store said his grandpa was your best friend.”

ABRAHAM HEWITT

“Well, the guy I talked to was Mason Hewitt and his dad’s name is Marshall, but I’m sure that’s who he was talking about.”

WHAT DID HE SAY ABOUT ME?

“That half the town thinks you ran off with a girl, and the other half thinks your ex-girlfriend, ah, killed you and turned you into a witches brew. Clearly, you didn’t run away.”

Two knocks.

“Do you remember your death?”

I AM NOT DEAD

“Uh, I hate to break it to you, buddy, but you’re not alive.”

I AM NOT DEAD

“So what would you call yourself in your current situation, then?”

CURSED

“You’re cursed?” Theo asks dubiously.

One knock. 

“May I ask why you think that?”

BROKE A WITCH’S HEART

“Okay, damn. So she was a witch?”

One knock.

“But she didn’t kill you?”

One knock.

“Do you know how to break the curse?”

A pause, then one knock.

“Can I help?”

One knock, then two.

“Mind writing down what  _ that _ was supposed to mean?”

IF I TELL, IT WON’T WORK. PROBABLY.

“So you’re not going to risk it.” Theo guesses.

One knock.

“Understandable.”

NEED REST

“You need to rest?”

One knock. 

Does the writing take energy or something?

One knock.

“Had to take a lot of breaks when you did all that paperwork, I’ll bet.”

One knock.

“Alright.” Theo chuckles. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Liam Dunbar.

The writing is sloppy and barely legible, but Theo can read: LIKEWISE

Theo spends the rest of the evening working on assignments for his classes.

🝎🝎


	5. iv

The next morning, Theo greeted Liam cheerfully, ate his breakfast, then packed up the Ouija board to take it back to Noshiko.

When he walks through the door, Kira hops off her stool behind the front counter and rushes to him. “So? How did it go?”

“It, uh,” Theo feels his face go hot. “It went as your mother expected it would, I’m sure.”

As if she’d heard herself mentioned, Noshiko walks through the beaded curtain. “Well?”

“Well, nothing. You knew I wouldn’t need it, didn’t you?”

“Of course I did.”

Theo shakes his head and hands the box to her. “I’m not even going to ask how you knew. But thank you for letting me borrow it anyway.”

Noshiko nods at him with a soft smirk on her lips before turning and leaving him and her daughter to their own devices.

“You didn’t need it?” Kira asks him.

“Nah. Liam -that’s his name- can move pen on paper. Takes a lot of energy or whatever so we couldn’t talk for long, but now we know we can communicate better.”

“That is so cool.” Kira grins. “So, what did he say? Does he want to move on?”

“Oh, well. He’d not a ghost, actually. So, there’s nothing for him to move on from, I guess? No unfinished business or anything like that.” Theo shrugs.

“What? Okay, so then, why is he haunting your house or whatever?”

“Oh, right. He’s cursed. The way he tells it, he broke a witch’s heart and she cursed him. He knows how to break the spell but he didn’t want to tell me in case that would jinx it.”

“Oh, wow. That…”

“Yeah.” Theo shoves his fists in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. “So, while I’m here, tell me about some of the things you have here. I have several women in my life who might like some of these baubles you have laying around.”

Kira laughs and gives him a tour, telling him about different meanings for each crystal and gemstone, for each pattern in the beadworks on necklaces and bracelets. She translates the Japanese on the hand-painted notebook covers. 

By the time he leaves, he has a set of moonstone and jade earrings for his mother and a beaded bracelet for his sister. He has a pearl and opal pendant for Tracy and a woven leather belt with amber beads for Malia. All in all, he feels good about each gift and he’ll happily keep them until their birthdays or whichever gift-giving holiday might come first.

He stops by Hale’s, the pub he’d visited with Brett and Josh, for a late lunch. He really likes their roast beef subs.

He’s sitting in a back booth, scrolling through his phone and munching on his leftover fries when the seat across from his is suddenly occupied. He looks at the man across from him, dressed in a distinct tan uniform, then around at the mostly empty room around them. 

“Can I help you, Deputy,” Theo squints at his name tag. “Stilinski?”

“Hope so.” Stilinski grins. “I hate eating alone, so I thought I’d join you.”

“Most people wait for an invitation?” Theo points out.

“Yeah,” the deputy agrees, but says nothing else.

Theo raises his eyebrows and sits back. “Did I do something wrong, Deputy?”

“Nope,” Stilinski says cheerfully, “And just call me Stiles. I’m gonna be honest with you. Mason over at the hardware store told me you’re the guy who bought the old Dunbar house. I’m mostly here for company and gossip. You’re more than welcome to tell me to fuck off, but I’m hoping you won’t.”

Theo blinks at him. “Okay, wow.” He’s not sure what to think of this guy. “Um, hello Stiles?” He holds out his hand. “Pleasure to meet you. I’m Theo Raeken.”

Stiles grins and shakes his hand. “The pleasure is all mine. I spent a lot of time poking around that old house. I’m not sure what I was looking for, but I never found it. I’m glad someone is going to take care of the place.”

“Well, I’m certainly going to do my best.”

“Anything weird happen to you yet? I heard anytime someone wanted to tear into the place before, they were always… dissuaded from doing so.”

Theo isn’t ready to tell this stranger about Liam, he’s not sure why, he’s sure Stiles is just curious, he just doesn’t want to share his secret. It’s why he hasn’t even told Mason, who should probably know before anyone else. (Kira and Noshiko don’t count. He’d needed them.)

Before he can come up with some kind of excuse, a tall, bearded man comes to the table with a loaded plate and sets in front of Stiles before leaning down to brush a kiss over his forehead. “Babe, leave the poor man alone. All he wanted was some lunch. He didn’t ask for your nosey ass to join him.”

Stiles grumbles and shoves a few curly fries in his mouth.

The other man smiles fondly at him and shakes his head before turning to Theo. “Sorry about my husband. What he lacks in tact, he makes up for with brilliant police work. Derek Hale.” He holds his hand out to Theo.

Theo shakes it and introduces himself in turn. “He always talk that much?”

“Yes. Except when he’s stuffing his face.”

“Hey!” Stiles says around a mouthful of burger.

“Yeah, yeah,” Derek shakes his head at him. “I know you can talk with your mouth full, too.”

Stiles narrows his eyes at him and swallows. He opens his mouth to say something else but Theo’s phone goes off in his hand. It’s Tracy.

“Gentlemen, I have to take this. I have a feeling I will be seeing you sooner rather than later.” He leaves a couple of twenties on the table and makes his way out of the pub.

“Yes, ma’am?” Theo answers the phone.

“What did you do?” Tracy asks.

“What do you mean what did I do? I didn’t do anything.”

“You’re only nice when you did something.”

“That is a lie and you know it. Now, what did you need, Trace?” Theo chuckles. 

He can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “I’m just checking to see if you’re going to be ready for us tomorrow?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because this is your first big project that you’re doing alone.”

“I’m not doing it alone. Unless you guys are planning on leaving me high and dry.”

“Don’t count on it,” she laughs. “I’m excited, Theo. This is going to be awesome.”

“You’re damn right it’s going to be awesome. And just the first of more to come if I have anything to say about it.”

“Good. I’ll see you first thing in the morning?”

“Absolutely.” They hang up and Theo smiles. She’ll never say it, but she was worried about him and he knows it. Tracy has the tendency to think of Theo as some rich white boy with a silver spoon up his ass.

Nevermind that he is a white male with rich parents that gave him everything he wanted. He’s never shirked a hard days work when the occasion called for it and he managed to gain her respect in proving it to her. 

As Theo drives home, he doesn’t expect any other calls for the night. Josh and Brett already had their visit, no doubt relaying everything he’d told them to the rest of the crew. Tracy had put in her courtesy call. Corey would rather send smoke signals then call anyone ever. And Malia wouldn’t see the point in calling for no actual reason.

When he gets back to the house, Theo decides to take a stroll around the property. Tracy calling had made him wonder what they were going to do with the landscape. A footpath to the door would be nice, he thinks. Some flower beds around the porch. 

As he rounds the side of the house he feels the now familiar presence of Liam beside him. He glances over and sees the shadow. “Hello, Liam.”

One shadowy arm makes a wide arc, making Theo smile.

“I’ve spent most of my time thinking about what I want to do with the inside of the house, I haven’t really put much thought into the outside of the house. I definitely want to repaint, but I don’t really know what else. My landscaper, Tracy, called to check in a while ago. You’ll get to see her and the rest of them tomorrow. Well, you already saw Brett and Josh. Brett was the tall obnoxious one. He’s like me, general contractor. No specialty, but very hands on with demo and reconstruction. Josh is my electrician. He’s going to get all of that wiring up to date. There’s also Corey, who is in charge of plumbing. He’s going to hate me for the two bathrooms upstairs.” Theo laughs. “And last but not least is Malia. She’s scary but she’s damn good at what she does. She's the best with detail work. Molding, trim, backsplashes, she’s your woman.”

There’s no answer, but Theo doesn’t really expect one since they’ve wandered so far from the house. He realizes they’re heading toward the cemetery. “I’m definitely going to clear this pathway and maybe make a proper walkway out of it. Riverstone maybe? That would be pretty.” 

Theo steps over a large branch and around a puddle of indeterminable depth. When they reach the wrought iron fence, Theo asks, “How many generations are here, do you know?”

Three clangs ring out.

“Three generations. Wow. I wish you could tell me why the house didn’t stay in the family. But that’s a story for another time.”

One clang.

Theo walks past the broken gate and starts walking along the headstones. “I’ll see what I can do about clearing these off and restoring them for you.”

He comes across a stone that’s almost cleared off. He walks around to see who it belongs to.

LIAM EUGENE DUNBAR

Forever loved. Forever missed.

Gone, but not forgotten.

“Whoa. I thought you said you weren’t buried here?” Theo steps back.

One clang on the fence behind him.

“But you have a headstone?”

One clang.

“I guess your family didn’t know what to think, right?” Theo shuffles his feet. “Mason said you were they ‘boy who disappeared’.” He bends down to brush his hand against the stone. “‘Gone, but not forgotten.’ I guess you were never really gone. And I know you’re here. So you’re not forgotten either. I’m sure there are people alive who still love and miss you, too. Abraham Hewitt hasn’t forgotten you.” Theo smiles sadly and turns to Liam.

Then, he gasps.

🝎🝎

_ Liam takes a step back when Theo gasps. “What?” _

“Oh, my god, I can see you.” _ Theo takes a few steps forward.  _ “Well, sorta. You’re, like, see-through. But I can actually see your face. Holy shit.”

_ “Holy shit.” Liam repeats.  _

_ Theo sees him! All of him! Sort of.  _

_ It’s more than he could’ve asked for. _

“Still can’t hear you, though.”  _ Theo snickers.  _ “But I’m pretty sure you also just said ‘Holy shit.’.”

_ Liam nods. _

“This is awesome! Maybe you can break this curse after all!”

_ Liam makes a helpless gesture trying to convey that it’s not as simple as being seen by only one person.  _

_ But maybe it is. _

_ “...FIND TRUE EVERLASTING LOVE…” _

_ True everlasting love. _

_ Love. _

_ Liam had thought he’d loved the witch. He thought he’d been falling in love with Caleb’s pretty face and shy demeanor.  _

_ But neither of them had left the almost painful feeling in his chest that he feels when he sees Theo Raeken. He hadn’t felt like something was missing when they weren’t around. Hell, Liam hadn’t known he’d always felt something was missing until he’d seen Theo and then he left. He hadn’t even known his first name and now… _

_ Now he knows Theo wants to fix his family home. He wants to take what is already there and make it better. He wants to plant flowers and make pathways.  _

_ He wants to clean up Liam’s family cemetery and make it a beautiful resting place for his family again. _

_ If Liam isn’t in love with Theo already, then he almost is.  _

_ And if he can get Theo to love him back… _

_ Not only would Liam be free, but he’d have his true everlasting love. _

_ The pressure in his chest swells and he looks up at the sky. “Oh, Hayden. I am so sorry I couldn’t love you like this. I hope you found your true everlasting love after all.” _

_ When he lowers his head he sees Theo smirking at him. _ “Do you talk to the sky often?”

_ Liam smiles softly and shakes his head. He gestures toward the house. _

“Yeah, let’s go. I’ve got some last minute prep to do before the team shows up tomorrow.” _ He turns and starts walking. _

_ Liam follows. He reaches out to brush his hand against Theo’s back. He’s disappointed but not surprised when his fingers slide through his back. _

🝎🝎


	6. v

The next morning brings chaos as Theo’s team arrives. 

He rushes through breakfast with Liam, chatting excitedly about seeing his people again. He wishes Liam could actually talk to him, but just having someone to talk to is enough for the moment. It’s gratifying to be able to see Liam’s face and his reactions to what Theo says.

And, oh man, Liam’s face. Transparent as it is, Theo almost lost it when he saw Liam’s face. He’s beautiful. Theo can’t really see the shades of color to his face, but he can tell he’s got dark close-cropped hair and light eyes. He’s got high cheekbones and his jaw could probably cut glass. It’s like the universe poked around in Theo’s head and found all of his preferred facial features and put them on the most unattainable guy Theo has ever encountered.

If Theo were the philosophical type, he’d think that this was the universe telling him that he’s gotten everything else that he’d ever wanted. This is one thing he’ll have to live without to keep him humble. Or whatever. Good thing he’s not philosophical. He’s aware that people are not things that he can have just because he wants them. Thanks.

When everyone arrives, Theo is only a little surprised that he’s the only one that can see Liam. He’d told Theo that no one had ever seen him before Theo beside some animals and a baby. Theo doesn’t know what that’s supposed to mean, but he’s happy that he can be there for Liam since the guy had been alone for a long time.

He sends everyone through the house to tell them what he wants. Corey is suitably put out about the upstairs bathrooms, but he recognizes how useful they’d be for future homeowners. He and Theo make plans to go through the second floor and figure out the best layout for the new rooms.

When they’re finished with the house, he takes everyone downstairs to answer any questions. While Josh is explaining to Malia how much work he’s going to be doing behind the walls before she can even start to think about trimming, Theo catches sight of Liam weaving between everyone, getting a closer look. He stops in front of Brett, staring up at him. He turns to Theo.

Now, Theo isn’t the best lip reader, but he’s pretty sure Liam just mouthed:  _ what is even the point of being that tall? _

Theo busts out laughing. Everyone looks at him funny. “Don’t mind me,” he waves them off, “I just thought of something funny I saw on TV last night.” 

When everyone goes back to what they were doing, Theo glares at Liam who makes a poor attempt at an innocent expression. Theo rolls his eyes.

When noon rolls around, they head to town to grab lunch at a diner. Theo warns them that they’ll be a regular sight for the next couple of months. Especially since their burgers are so amazing. The staff didn’t seem to have a problem with them, which is a very good thing.

Theo talks to Tracy about his ideas for the front yard and the cemetery (which she was pretty excited about. Suck it, Brett.), and says everything else he’ll leave in her capable hands. When he tells Malia he’s leaving her in charge of power washing the old paint off, she’d been downright gleeful.

When they make it back they see that the dumpster and recycle container had been delivered.

“Alright, yall,” Theo grins at his friends and colleagues. “Ready to get this party started?”

Everyone cheers.

He leads them to the trailer Brett and Josh had brought over with their truck. Everyone grabs a sledgehammer and they file into the house. Three of them stand on one side of the kitchen/dining room wall. 

“Everyone ready!” They cheer again, lifting their hammers. “On three. One… two… three!” Everyone swings their hammers into the wall causing six giant holes to appear.” They all holler like children at the destruction.

With the first bit of demo out of the way, everyone breaks off to start on their individual tasks. Before he leaves the kitchen, though, Theo sees Liam pressing his hand against the wall. 

Theo walks over to him. “You trust me, right?” he asks lowly.

Liam appears to take a deep breath, even though Theo knows he doesn’t actually have to breathe, and then he nods and looks up at Theo.

“I told you, didn’t I? We’re going to make a mess of the place. And then we’re going to clean it up and your house will be all the better for it. I promise.”

Liam sighs again and then smiles up at Theo. Theo wonders, not for the first time, if his eyes are blue or green or gold. He hopes he gets to find out. After all, Liam had started out as just an invisible knock on the wall. And now he’s almost right in front of him.

He heads upstairs with a copy of the blueprints to go over with Corey. After about forty-five minutes, they finally have an agreeable layout for the rooms. Theo drags Josh upstairs to go over the new wall placements and how that will affect his wiring on the second floor. After they’ve got their plans laid out, Theo finally rolls his sleeves up to start working with his hands.

They start off taking all of the doors off the hinges. They toss the ones they won’t need or want to replace in the recycle container and set the ones they’re keeping in the large, empty living room. Malia interrupts her inspection of the fireplace to look over each one to deem them worthy of keeping or not.

When the sun goes down, Theo sends everyone off to the hotel they’re staying at during the week and he heads toward his trailer for some much needed food. Liam’s already sitting at the table when he walks in. 

Theo smiles tiredly at him. “Day one down. It’ll only get more hectic from here.”

Liam laughs and Theo thinks, as he makes a quick supper out of a can of soup, he desperately wants to hear what that sounds like. Does Liam have a deceptively deep voice? A sweet tenor? Something in between? Theo shakes those thoughts away. It’s not important and it might not ever be.

He sits across from his companion with his soup and settles in for a mostly one-sided conversation, trying to be content and mostly succeeding.


	7. vi

_ Liam spends his days basically following Theo around while he and his team gut the house Liam had been born in. Part of him wants to despair at the sight of seeing his forefather’s hard work being torn away, but he trusts Theo to make everything right in the end. _

_ He likes watching Theo work with his hands. He likes watching him work with his head, figuring out how to solve problems when they crop up. He likes watching Theo interact with his friends and the other workers who have joined them.  _

_ Liam really just likes watching Theo. He really is the most beautiful man Liam has ever seen. Not obscenely tall like Brett, he’s just tall enough that Liam would have to look up to kiss him, but wouldn’t have to strain or even get on his tippy toes.  _

_ And when did he start thinking about kissing Theo? Okay, if he’s honest with himself, ever since he saw him smile for the first time, but that’s beside the point. _

_ As the weeks pass, Liam can’t help but wonder what it would be like to just touch Theo. Hold his hand, hug him, brush his too-long bangs out of his eyes, and, yes, kiss him. He wants to be able to speak to him, really laugh with him.  _

_ He wants Theo. His calloused hands, his broad shoulders, his laugh lines that crease the corners of his eyes. The half dimple in his left cheek that only shows up with that  _ one  _ grin. Liam wants all his smiles, his laughs, even his tears. All of him. _

_ Even his ridiculous friends.  _

_ Right now, he stands beside Theo watching Corey stammer as he takes a delivery from a man who looks so much like his old friend Abraham that he must be the grandson, Mason, that Theo talks fondly about.  _

_ As soon as Mason leaves, Theo busts his gut laughing at his best friend.  _ “Dude. Dude! I’ve never seen you get tongue-tied like that!”

“Fuck off, Theo.” _ Poor Corey, his cheeks are flushed and he’s squeezing his clipboard so hard, Liam is afraid he’s going to break it in half. _

_ Theo must realize that as well because he swallows his next round of giggles and claps his hands on Corey’s shoulders.  _ “Don’t worry about it, man. He was definitely flattered. Pretty sure you could get a date easy.”

_ “Yeah, but first he has to be able to talk to him to ask.” Liam snickers. _

_ Theo’s back stiffens and he turns his head. He glances briefly at Liam, then looks at Corey.  _ “Alright man, I’m sorry for laughing. But seriously, you are way smoother than that, like, always. So, maybe that means something, yeah?”  _ He grins at Corey and claps his shoulders again.  _ “Go ahead inside and I’ll sort this mess out, okay?”

_ Corey eyes the order.  _ “You sure?”

“Yeah, man. Go ahead. Let me make up for being an ass.”

“Yeah. Okay.” _ Corey smirks and wanders toward the house. _

_ As soon as Corey is out of sight, Theo whirls around to look at Liam then demands,  _ “Say something else.”

🝎🝎

“Say something else.” Theo feels desperate, but he could have sworn he’d heard an unfamiliar voice make a joke while he’d been ribbing Corey.

_ “Uh, what?” _ Liam looks off balance.

Holy shit. 

“Holy shit.” Theo stares owlishly at Liam. “I heard you. Oh, my god, Liam, I heard you!” Theo smiles so hard, he’s afraid his face might crack.

_ “Wait. Really?” _ Liam looks incredulous.

“Yeah! You sound really far away or something. I kinda want to search for a volume button on you but whatever, we can have actual conversations now!”

_ “Holy shit!” _ Liam shouts and hurries toward Theo. 

When he rushes right through him, reality slaps them in the face. Right. He still can’t touch. “Well, damn. There goes that victory hug.” Liam murmurs.

Theo laughs loudly. “Hopefully, someday, we can actually do that.”

_ “No kidding.”  _

Theo turns to look at him. Now that he thinks about it, Liam has been getting less transparent over the last few weeks. He’s still black and white, but he’s harder to see through. Which, honestly, is equal parts awesome and frustrating. Theo has a feeling that being able to hear Liam will do nothing to lessen the ill-advised crush he has on the cursed guy.

Especially since his voice is so damn nice. A rough tenor that tickles his spine and makes him want to lean in to hear more.

Theo takes a deep breath and exhales loudly. “Alright, try to keep the chatter down, will you? I don’t need my team thinking I’m talking to myself all the time.” He smirks when Liam rolls his eyes at him. “I better get to work on these as well,” he points at the order he’d insisted Corey leave behind so he could talk to Liam.

Liam hums and leans against a sawhorse. Theo frowns as he picks up the clipboard Corey had abandoned. “Okay, so do you actually need to lean against that or does it take effort to walk through walls and shit? How does that work?”

_ “Uh, I honestly don’t think about it.” _ Liam shrugs.  _ “I’m not corporeal or tangible so I technically shouldn’t be able to touch anything. But I learned how to and things like this I’ve just always done. Kind of like breathing, even though I guess I technically don’t need to do it, I still do. One of the first things I did after getting cursed was sit at the dinner table. Everyone was talking about how I was late for supper, but I was literally sitting in my chair. But, of course, no one could see me. Bad day all around.” _

Theo makes a sympathetic face. “I’m sorry, Liam.”

_ “It was my own fault. I promised things I shouldn’t have and I’ve paid dearly for it. But I’m hoping this-” _ he gestures between them  _ “-means that my penance is almost paid.” _

“I hope you’re right.”

🝎🝎

The weeks whirl by. 

Corey manages to ask Mason out and they’ve been spending their weekends together. Malia had her birthday and Theo gave her the belt he’d bought for her from Kira. She’d loved it so much that she’d demanded to know where he’d gotten it from. She’d gone to the store and left with more things than she needed as well as Kira’s phone number. Go figure.

It turns out that Deputy Stiles Stilinski is Scott McCall’s best friend since forever and managed to wrangle an invite to the house to poke around and comment on the changes. Luckily, he’d brought Derek with him to keep him reigned in. As it was, he’d almost hit one of Coach’s people with a nail when he’d picked up the nailgun Scott had specifically told him not to touch.

Speaking of Coach, Corey is as exasperated and fascinated by the man as Theo kip. He’s a brilliant plumber, seeing the easiest pathways for pipes that Corey hadn’t thought of, but almost everything else that comes out of his mouth is… odd, to say the least. The other men in his employ assure Corey that he’ll get used to him, but he’s not quite there yet.

When the inspector, a no-nonsense woman named Lydia, comes in to check on their progress, Theo is elated when she has nothing negative to report and tells him she’s looking forward to seeing the house finished.

When the glass guys come in with Theo’s new windows, Liam laughs at Theo’s happy dance. He spends the day trying to not hover obnoxiously over the men doing their work changing out the windows. He’s relatively sure he didn’t make a total nuisance of himself.

Brett has an absolute ball knocking out wall after wall. He doesn’t even mind cleaning up all of the leftover rubble. Malia is halfway finished with stripping the paint from the outside of the house. 

And Tracy? Tracy is almost finished with the cemetery. She’d cleared off the path. She’d fixed the gate. She’d cleared off the stones and has scrubbed every headstone herself. Theo hadn’t expected her to take such care, but he’s thankful she did. 

“I think I’m going to plant honeysuckle along the fence,” she tells Theo when he rocks up to check her progress. She’s in the middle of pulling weeds inside the fence. “And some bulbs for each headstone. Seasonal, for when they each died.” She squints up at Theo. “Did you know there are six kids buried here?”

Theo swallows. “I did not know that.” He glances over at Liam who nods sadly.

“And that headstone for the boy who disappeared is… I don’t know. Sad? Sweet? I heard what the locals think happened to him. I don’t know what to believe. I hope he ran off with his sweetheart and is old and happy with a ton of grandkids.” 

Liam coughs and Theo clamps down on his urge to laugh. “That would be really nice, wouldn’t it.”

“Yeah. Did you want something, Theo?”

“Nah, just wanted to see how you were doing. Also, Derek brought subs for everyone.”

“What? Why didn’t you lead with that? I’m starving!”

“Well, probably because you started talking before I could say anything. Now, get out of here.” Theo laughs, shooing her toward the house.

Theo takes another look around before turning to follow Tracy when he hears Liam say,  _ “This is where it happened.” _

“Wait. What?” Theo stops to look at him.

_ “I got cursed here. Well, technically, over there.”  _ Liam gestures toward the treeline. _ “Those trees are the property line. I asked Hayden to meet me here so I could tell her I’d met someone else. I figured this would be a private place where if she wanted to cause a scene, it would be less embarrassing for both of us. _

_ “I never believed she was a witch. She was beautiful. Soft dark eyes, lovely raven-colored locks that wound around my wrist, skin that felt like silk. I thought I loved her and so I told her that I did. I promised that we’d be together forever. But… hell, I was twenty years old and I didn’t know what I wanted. Half of my friends were being dragged to the chapel. I knew I didn’t want that, at least. _

_ “Then this new boy came into town. A little taller than you, slender, the sweetest dusting of freckles over his nose. Eyes like sapphires. It hurt to look at him for too long. And I thought that meant maybe I wasn’t as in love with Hayden as I thought. Which, by the way, was the only thing I was right about.” _ Liam lets out a self-deprecating laugh.  _ “I was a fool for a pretty face, but love had nothing to do with any of it.” _

“So you told her about meeting someone else and instead of taking the blow with dignity, she curses you to be, what? Invisible forever?”

_ “Eh, something like that. I’m still not going to give you the details.”  _ Theo rolls his eyes. _ “Wanna see what happens when I try to leave?” _

“What? Now? Here?”

_ “Well, yeah. It’s the easiest way to demonstrate because I’ll have the least distance to travel.” _

“What?” Theo shakes his head trying to figure out what Liam is talking about.

Liam huffs. _ “Just watch. I told you the trees are the property line right?” _

“Yeah?”

_ “Right. So, stay there and watch.” _

Liam walked to the trees and when he made to walk past them, he disappeared.

Theo panics. “Oh, my god. Liam!”

_ “Yes, handsome?” _

Theo whirls around to see Liam leaning against one of the taller headstones, grinning. “What the hell?”

Liam laughs. _ “When I try to cross the property line, I end up right here on Grandpa Dunbar’s stone. It’s where I was lying when she hurled the curse at me. After she’d hurled me from the trees and into the stone when I broke the news to her.” _ He pulls at the collar of his shirt and sniffs sharply.  _ “Ripped my favorite shirt.” _

Theo stares at him for a second before bursting out in laughter. “All of that and you’re most worried about your shirt?”

_ “It was my favorite, Theo,” _ Liam says, like Theo is the ridiculous one.  _ “It was my date shirt.” _

“You broke up with your girlfriend while wearing your date shirt?”

Liam shrugs.  _ “I had a date with Caleb that night.” _

Theo purses his lips. “I’m starting to see why she cursed you.”

_ “Oh, fuck off.” _ Liam laughs.  _ “I told you I was a fool.” _

Theo laughs as well and then his stomach lets out a loud rumble.

_ “Let’s get you some food.” _ Liam turns toward the gate.  _ “Can’t have you passing out on me.” _

Theo rolls his eyes. “It almost sounds like you care, Liam.”

Liam pauses to stare at him.  _ “Of course I care, Theo. More than you know.” _

Theo stares at his back, he’s barely transparent anymore. Theo’s heart is beating loudly in his chest. Liam cares about him.

And he’d called him handsome. What the hell is Theo supposed to do this this knowledge?

He follows Liam to the house.

🝎🝎


	8. vii

Theo and the crew are at Hale’s celebrating the finished second floor bathrooms. Coach, Scott, and their guys are with them. They’d spent the last two days hauling tubs and sinks and toilets up the stairs. Installing them along with faucets and shower stalls and shower heads. Now all that‘s left to do is let Malia worry about the details. Flooring, paint, tile, light fixtures. It’s gratifying knowing that the hardest work is done. Corey is entitled to be as proud as he is. Coach and his team, too.

To top it all off, Josh and Scott are pretty well finished with the worst of the wiring. Updating the breakers had been a pain in the ass and rearranging the wiring on the second floor had meant doing so on the third floor as well, though not as much. Scott and his boys probably won’t be needed for the rest of the renovation, but he insisted on them calling him if they needed anything.

The rest of the house’s new skeleton is almost finished, ready for insulation and drywall. Brett enjoys putting walls up almost as much as he loves tearing them down. When those are all done, they’re going to tackle the kitchen and dining area. Theo’s personal favorite part. He’s more than ready to retire the awful cabinets and replace them with some he’d been eyeballing at Hewitt’s for months.

Theo’s nursing his third beer, unwilling to drink another before driving home and not quite willing to be without a drink quite yet, when Scott’s table erupts with laughter. He looks over to see Stiles telling a story with his arms flailing and grins. Stiles really is growing on him. Like a fungus, but eh, could be worse. 

Theo watches as Derek easily ducks and dodges Stiles’s arms while engaging in his own conversation with Malia who has Kira sitting on her lap. He wonders idly how often Derek had gotten black eyes before learning when to duck. 

He takes a sip from his glass and smiles watching his friends interact with each other. Across from him, Mason and Corey are whispering something to each other that Theo probably doesn’t want to know. Scott tucks his girlfriend’s hair behind her ear and she leans into him. Brett and Josh hold hands on the table while laughing at Stile’s tale. Suddenly, Theo wishes Liam were there with them. 

Which is ridiculous, right? It’s not like they’re together. How would that even work?  _ Hi. This is my boyfriend, Liam. He’s invisible because he was cursed by a witch, but I swear he’s real and I don’t belong in Eichen House. _

Sure. That would go over real well.

Theo sighs and drains his glass. He contemplates getting another, but decides it’s best if he just goes home. Despite his misgivings, he’d rather be home with Liam than at the pub without him, so… yeah. 

Maybe he does belong in Eichen after all.

He deposits his empty glass at the bar and pays his tab before heading back over to his people. “Hey, guys,” he fakes a yawn until it becomes a real one. “I’m gonna head home. See my guys on Monday.”

He leaves to a chorus of “Bye Theo”s and several insults. He throws a grin and a one fingered wave behind him before walking out the door.

He barely registers the drive home and when he walks into the trailer, he sees Liam reclined on the couch watching… is that Buffy? Yep, that’s Buffy. Nice.

He sits up when Theo closes the door.  _ “You’re back earlier than I thought you’d be.” _

“Yeah, me too.” Theo laughs. “Apparently I am an old man in a young man’s body.”

Liam squints at him.  _ “I’m not sure you’re allowed to say that to me.” _

Theo guffaws. “Fair enough. But do you really have a body?”

_ “Ugh. Let’s not go there.” _

Snickering, Theo sits beside Liam already feeling happier than he had at the pub.

_ “So, you were tired and you left?” _

“Kinda? I just wasn’t feeling in the partying mood and I didn’t want to bring anyone down so I decided I should leave.” Theo sucks in a breath. “Also, I wished you were there but, well.” He shrugs.

Liam’s face softens.  _ “You missed me?” _

“Yeah.”

Liam beams at him. Theo smiles back and then his jaw drops.

🝎🝎

_ Liam’s brow furrows. “What?” _

“I- you-” _ Theo reaches up as if to touch Liam’s face. Then scowls like he remembers that he can’t.  _ “I haven't been able to see through you for a while, and your voice is louder than it used to be but it still feels like your speaking from far away. But you were always… colorless. And now…” _ Theo leans closer.  _ “God, you were beautiful in black and white, now you are unfairly devastating. I figured your eyes would be pretty, but this is insane. So, so blue.”

_ “Yeah, well, you’ve got those eyes that can’t decide if they want to be green or blue or grey or all three at once. Talk about devastating. And, like, all of that.” Liam gestures toward Theo’s body. “I’m sure one of these days, you’re going to take your shirt off and I’m going to die for real.” _

_ Theo laughs and sits back, still staring. A hank of hair falls in his eyes. He flicks his head, but it just falls back down. _

_ This time, Liam leans forward. “Hold still for a second? I’ve been wanting to try this. I can pick up a pen, right? So, why not this?” _

_ He lifts his hand and concentrates. He brushes his hand over Theo’s hair. Nothing happens. He bites his lip and tries again. This time, his hair moves out of his eyes at Liam’s insistence. He grins goofily at Theo. _

_ Theo grins back but his eyes are a little sad.  _ “Nifty trick.”

_ Liam sighs. “I take it you didn’t feel it any more than I did.” _

“Nope. Just felt like my hair was moving itself.”

_ Liam sits back. “I’d give anything to be able to touch you.” _

“Yeah,” _ Theo agrees.  _ “I’d also really, really like to kiss you if we’re being honest.”

_ “Me too,” Liam practically whispers. Then he sits up with a determined look on his face. “Theo, these last few months have been the most amazing months of my entire life. All of it. When- when I thought I loved Hayden, everything I was feeling I’d felt before for other people, just not as strongly. And I thought that meant I loved her. And then, those feelings started to fade and I met Caleb and I got those feelings all over again. And maybe, if we’d have gotten the chance, it could’ve turned into real love. But we didn’t and I got cursed without ever knowing what real love was. And then you showed up, like a tornado uprooting everything I thought I knew. I miss you as soon as you’re gone. I feel like there’s this feral creature inside my chest trying to claw its way out to get to you every time you’re near. And, goddammit, if this right here is all we ever have, I’d be content with never getting to kiss or touch you because I love you so fucking much that the thought of not having you at all feels like the worst kind of curse.” _

“Shit.” _ Theo sniffs and drags the back of his hand under his eyes to wipe away the tears that had escaped.  _ “All those mornings, waking up to you sitting at my table. The breakfast conversations. The company you gave me while I was working alone. Your general presence everywhere I went while I was home. Our teasing and late night talks about nothing. I kept telling myself that getting too attached to you was a Bad Idea. That feeling anything for you would only end in disaster. How would I be able to explain it to anyone. But fuck it, I don’t care anymore because you’re right. If this is all we have, it’s enough. Because I love you, too.”

🝎🝎

  
  


No sooner than the last four words out of his mouth and Liam disappears. 

“No. NO!” Theo pats around the couch as if Liam had just fell between the cushions. “NO! LIAM! FUCK!”

He looks around frantically but he’s not there. He’s not there! He’s gone! He's gone.

“No, no, no.” Theo wraps his arms around his knees. “I shouldn’t have said anything I should’ve just kept my fucking mouth shut. I knew it, I knew it!”

_ I miss you as soon as you’re gone.  _

_ I love you so fucking much.  _

_ I care about you. More than you know.  _

_ Yes, handsome? _

_ Yes, handsome? _

_ Yes, handsome? _

The cemetery! The last time Liam had disappeared in front of Theo’s eyes, he’d ended up at his grandfather’s grave.

Theo bolts out of the trailer and stumbles in the direction of the cemetery. He trips over the red brick pathway Tracy had started toward the cemetery. He bolts upright, not registering the pain in his palms. “Liam!” 

Please be there. Please, please, PLEASE.

The solar lamps Tracy had installed at the corners of the fence come into view just as Theo crashes into something solid.

“Ow! Fuck! I forgot how much having a body hurts.”

Theo’s heart ratchets up another notch. “Liam? Liam?”

“Yeah?” The figure tangled up with Theo grumbles. “Oh, my god, Theo!”

They manage to extract themselves enough to face each other. Liam reaches out and brushes Theo’s bangs from his forehead. “Holy shit.” He sobs.

“Liam, fuck!” Theo pulls him into his arms, reveling in the feeling of Liam’s arms snaking around his torso. “I thought you were gone. I thought I’d fucked it up. But you’re here. You’re here and I can hold you. God, I love you, I love you so much.”

“I love you, too, Theo Raeken.” Liam pulls away to look up at him with a determined look on his face. He grabs Theo’s face and crashes their lips together. It’s messy and hard and a little off-center and it’s perfect.

🝎🝎


	9. Epilogue

Liam paces in front of the brand new couch in his newly renovated house. Theo’s vision of the house come to life is a beautiful thing.

The adjustment period for Liam post-curse is still ongoing. After all, he’d spent decades not needing to eat or sleep. Now, he’s almost always hungry and he’ll drop off mid-sentence if he’s sitting too comfortably. Sometimes he walks into doors and walls, forgetting he can’t just walk through them anymore. 

Explaining to Theo’s friends and crew about his Surprise Boyfriend had been a fun little adventure for them both. Theo had brought Kira by to meet Liam first, since she could vouch for him and prove he wasn’t crazy. Theo had decided against going into details about how he and Liam met when telling his family.

“Babe, calm down.” Theo steps in front of him to interrupt his pacing.

“I can’t. What if they don’t recognize me. What if they have heart attacks.” 

“Of course they’ll recognize you, Liam, and they’ve been adequately warned. If they were going to have heart attacks, they probably would’ve had them already.”

The doorbell rings.

“Shit.” Liam pales.

“Hey, hey. Remember what they set in literal stone. ‘Forever loved. Forever missed. Gone, but not forgotten.’ They never forgot you, they always loved and missed you when you were gone and they are going to be so happy to see you again. Okay?”

“Okay. Thank you.”

Theo smiles, kisses Liam, and opens the door to Liam’s siblings, and his best friend, who had waited 65 years to see their brother again.


End file.
